Driver pleads not guilty to killing boy, 3

Agustin Morales, in a red shirt, waited as deputies investigated after 3-year-old Juan Ruiz was struck by a car and killed along Encinitas Boulevard on Nov. 1, 2013. Morales, who was the driver, was charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.
— Teri Figueroa

Agustin Morales, in a red shirt, waited as deputies investigated after 3-year-old Juan Ruiz was struck by a car and killed along Encinitas Boulevard on Nov. 1, 2013. Morales, who was the driver, was charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.
/ Teri Figueroa

6  The driver in a collision that killed a 3-year-old boy last week in Encinitas pleaded not guilty Thursday to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.

Agustin Garcia Morales, 33, is also charged with providing investigators with false identification and driving without a valid license. He faces 2½ years in jail if convicted.

Prosecutors did not charge Morales with driving with a measurable amount of alcohol in his blood, though sheriff’s deputies arrested him Monday on suspicion of drunken driving. Deputy District Attorney Stephen Marquardt said in court that the evidence did not support filing that charge.

Marquardt said Morales’ negligence led to the death of the boy, Juan Ruiz.

The crash happened about 7:20 a.m. Friday along on Encinitas Boulevard east of Saxony Road.

Juan was walking to a bus stop with his mother, who was also pushing her 1-year-old son in a stroller, when Juan was struck by a 2003 Toyota Camry at the end of a steep driveway of an apartment complex.

The car also hit the stroller, Marquardt said.

The family was on a sidewalk and had the right of way, but Morales failed to stop at the end of the driveway, the prosecutor said.

“He plowed into them,” Marquardt said after Morales’ arraignment in Vista Superior Court.

Juan was trapped under the front of car. He was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, where he died.

Morales, who was headed to work, told authorities he did not know he had struck anything until the boy’s mother began pounding on his window.

The driver’s attorney, Peter Liss, said his client got out of the car and tried to help once he realized what had happened.

“He tried to pull up his vehicle, he cried for help, he waited for police, he did everything humanly possible to assist the tragic situation,” Liss said.

Deputies gave Morales a field sobriety test at the scene. His blood-alcohol level was 0.029 percent, Marquardt said. The legal driving limit in California is 0.08 percent.

Morales was not arrested until Monday, three days after the crash, following further investigation by deputies.

Judge Marshall Hockett set Morales’ bail at $75,000, as requested by Marquardt.

The prosecutor called Morales a flight risk and said he’d moved out of his apartment after the crash.

Liss said Morales’ lease was up, and he’d spent the day before the crash packing up his apartment. He also had a few beers while packing, the attorney said.

Morales is distraught over the boy’s death and went to church Sunday to pray for him, Liss said.

Even if Morales could post bail, his release is unlikely as federal authorities have placed an immigration hold on him. Morales was removed from the U.S. in January 2007 following a drunken driving arrest in late 2006.